In the knitting of ladies' fine denier sheer stockings and the like, it is the usual practice to knit the leg and foot portion of a fine denier yarn and to knit a heavy denier reinforcing yarn in plated relationship with the body yarn throughout the toe pocket. The reinforcing yarn in the toe pocket adds strength and wearability in the area at the ends of the toes where the need is greatest. However, the reinforced toe pocket produces a very definite and sharply contrasting line of demarcation between the fine denier body yarn in the foot portion and the reinforcing and body yarn in the toe pocket and this line of contrasting fabric density is objectionable for wear with open-toed shoes, such as sandals and the like.
In order to provide hosiery articles which are acceptable for wear with open-toed or sandal type shoes, it is the current practice to knit a fine denier yarn throughout the entire foot and toe. This type of hosiery, sometimes referred to as a sandal or nude toe, is considered to be more fashionable when worn with open-toed shoes, however, this type of hosiery article lacks durability because of insufficient reinforcement at the location of greatest wear, the ends of the toes, and usually results in a very short wear life for the hosiery article.